Top Items:
Amazon.com:
Amazon.com to Acquire Zappos.com — Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) today announced that it has reached an agreement to acquire Zappos.com, Inc. a leader in online apparel and footwear sales that strives to provide shoppers with the best possible service and selection.
Discussion:
Tech Beat, VentureBeat, Download Squad, TechFlash, paidContent, Digital Daily, Reuters, One By One Media, Bloomberg, Wall Street Journal and Seth's Blog
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Tony Hsieh / Zappos.com:
CEO Letter — Please set aside 20 minutes to carefully read this entire email. (My apologies for the occasional use of formal-sounding language, as parts of it are written in a particular way for legal reasons.) — Today is a big day in Zappos history. — This morning …
Discussion:
Techdirt, TechFlash, CNET News, Adrants, Mashable!, Doc Searls Weblog, AppScout, CenterNetworks and Inc.com, Thanks:gsharma
Brad Stone / Bits:
Amazon to Acquire Zappos.com for $847 Million — Amazon says it has reached an agreement to purchase online shoe retailer Zappos.com. — Amazon says it is paying for the acquisition with 10 million shares of stock worth approximately $807 million. In addition, Amazon said it will provide …
Brandon LeBlanc / The Windows Blog:
Windows 7 Has Been Released to Manufacturing — I am pleased to announce that Windows 7 has RTM'd! — As I mentioned previously, RTM officially happens only after sign-off occurs. What happens is a build gets designated as a RTM contender after going through significant testing and meeting our quality bar for RTM.
Discussion:
Windows Server Division WebLog, PC World, The Microsoft Blog, TechCrunch, TechFlash, Computerworld, Download Squad, blogs.chron.com, Neowin.net, All about Microsoft, Redmond Pie, Softpedia News, The Tech Report, DailyTech, Windows Live Community, ChannelWeb, ithinkdifferent, TechSpot, Engadget, Gear Diary, Guardian, GottaBeMobile.com, virtualization.info and HotHardware.com News
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Mary Jo Foley / All about Microsoft:
They're soup: Windows 7, Server 2008 R2 released to manufacturing — Windows 7 has been a tightly controlled product from its first days on the drawing board. The last milestone is proving to be no exception: On July 22, at precisely 4:40 p.m. ET, Microsoft announced it had released …
Kara Swisher / BoomTown:
Yahoo to Acquire Xoopit for About $20 Million — Yahoo plans on announcing Thursday that it has bought Xoopit for a price in the $20 million range, according to several sources, one of its first acquisitions in a long while. — Reached late this afternoon by BoomTown, a Yahoo (YHOO) …
Discussion:
VentureBeat, MYBLOG by Ouriel, GigaOM, Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim, Dealscape, CNET News, Digits, I4U News, Softpedia News and VatorNews
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Sam Diaz / Between the Lines:
eBay's Q2: PayPal, Skype growth offset by declines at marketplace sites — eBay today reported solid second quarter financial results that were slightly better than Wall Street's expectations but revenue growth of PayPal and Skype was offset, in part, by declines in the Marketplaces business.
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Gillian Reagan / New York Observer:
How The Times' Home Page Gets Made — By most counts, New York Times deputy managing editor Jonathan Landman still considers the front page of the printed newspaper a sacred space, a place where editors and reporters display their best work and uphold the tradition of The Times' quality reporting.
Adam Pash / Lifehacker:
Gmail Offers to Automatically Unsubscribe You from Mailing Lists — Ever get an email from a legit mailing list but went ahead and marked it as spam anyway because you just don't want it? Gmail has smartened up to this common behavior, offering to automatically unsubscribe you from certain messages.
Staci D. Kramer / paidContent:
Exclusive: MySpace Mail Slated To Launch This Week — This Thursday, MySpace plans to roll out its own webmail, paidContent has learned from sources familiar with the plans. The News Corp (NYSE: NWS). social network, like competitor Facebook, allows messaging—a much-used service …
Discussion:
CNET News, Telegraph, Gadgetell, Silicon Alley Insider, Neowin.net, TECH.BLORGE.com, Techgeist and Pocket-lint.com
Amy Clancy / KIRO-TV:
Apple Downplays Fiery iPod Incidents — An exclusive KIRO 7 Investigation reveals an alarming number of Apple brand iPod MP3 players have suddenly burst into flames and smoke, injuring people and damaging property. — It's an investigation that Apple has apparently been trying to keep out of the public eye.
Discussion:
PC World, MacRumors, 9 to 5 Mac, Ars Technica, Silicon Alley Insider, blogs.ft.com, OSNews, Gadget Lab and Hardware 2.0
Alex Chitu / Google Operating System:
Google Docs, Slowly Morphing into Google Drive — The new interface of Google Docs, which is slowly rolled out to all users, brings the service one step closer to an online storage service. The “items by type” menu replaced “PDFs” with “Files”, suggesting that Google Docs will allow users to upload any type of files.
Kevin Michaluk / CrackBerry.com blogs:
Video First Look: BlackBerry Storm 9550 in Action! — ** Video Removed as per the Request of the Hockey Lovers in Waterloo. Give Jim a Team Already and Make it Seven! — * update: wow, apologies in the video for flipping around the device so much in my hands. must have had too much green tea this afternoon.
Meg Kinnard / Associated Press:
AG in SC asks judge to drop Craigslist lawsuit — COLUMBIA, S.C. — The South Carolina attorney general who has threatened to prosecute Craigslist for prostitution-related ads wants a federal judge to dismiss the company's complaint against him, according to court papers filed this week.
Discussion:
The Register
Eric Eldon / VentureBeat:
Adknowledge buys Super Rewards, expands to virtual goods advertising — Super Rewards, an Web advertising company that offers points or other rewards to Web users who sign up for services, has been acquired by advertising conglomerate Adknowledge. — It is one of the largest acquisitions …
Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:
Synaptics moves to cell phones with 10-finger touch screens — The Apple iPhone popularized the multitouch screens that you can swipe with your hands, but the underlying technology came from Synaptics, which supplied the touch-based components that made it possible to control a phone's features …
Discussion:
BetaNews, Synaptics, Engadget, Gizmodo, SlashGear, Liliputing, GigaOM, Electronista, Technologizer, WMPoweruser.com and GottaBeMobile.com
Daniel Shen / DigiTimes:
HTC to offer Qualcomm BMP-based handsets, hike adoption of Android — Taiwan-based High Computer Tech (HTC) will launch a high-profile 3G handset based on Qualcomm's Brew Mobile Platform (BMP) in September or October targeting the consumer segment, according to industry sources in Taiwan.
Discussion:
mocoNews, Boy Genius Report, The Register, last100, Phone Arena, MobileCrunch, I4U News, InformationWeek, IntoMobile, Android Phone Fans and SlashGear
Chris Albrecht / NewTeeVee:
What the Heck Is Going on With Apple TV? — Apple, during its quarterly earnings call yesterday, didn't bring up its stepchild set-top box, the Apple TV. For those who follow the video industry, this is more of a predictable disappointment than a shocker.
Andrew LaVallee / Digits:
AT&T to Power Upcoming E-Reader — AT&T said Wednesday that it will provide the 3G data connectivity for Plastic Logic's e-reader when the device becomes available next year. — All Things D — Plastic Logic CEO Richard Archuleta shows off the company's e-reader at the D conference in May.
Discussion:
Plastic Logic, VentureBeat, PC World, Bits, Electronista, Brainstorm Tech, Inc.com, DSLreports and MediaMemo
Jenna Wortham / Bits:
Mobile Internet Use Shrinks Digital Divide — Quick: Picture an Internet aficionado, circa 1995. — The first image that comes to my mind is Dennis Nedry, the embryo thief in “Jurassic Park,” who met his untimely end facing down a dinosaur in a soggy mud pit.
Andy Abramson / VoIP Watch:
Rumored New Apple iPod Touch Will Be Huge for VoIP, Multimedia — Yesterday on KenRadio, host Ken Rutkowski and I jabbered on about the rumored new Apple iPod touch, that will come with a camera and a microphone-built in and 64 GB of memory. — This is awesome news for the likes of Skype …
Wall Street Journal:
Techdom's Two Cold Wars — Why didn't the U.S. and the USSR just ignore each other and save themselves the cost of an arms race? Answer: Each had the potential to do such serious damage to the other, they dared not risk it. — Microsoft and Google also have the power to damage each other, and are better off if they don't.
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CNET News
Rafat Ali / paidContent:
Bankrate Being Acquired By Apax For $571 Million in Cash; Horrendous Q209 Prelim Numbers — Consumer financial information and lead gen service Bankrate (NSDQ: RATE) is being acquired by PE firm Apax Partners, in a deal just announced. The North Palm Beach, FL-based company is also announcing …
Discussion:
Pulse2
Richard MacManus / ReadWriteWeb:
IBM and The Internet of Things — In the Web world, you know that a trend has major traction when IBM is all over it. Like any large Internet company, Big Blue is careful about which trends it latches onto. It was a good couple of years before they were spotted at the Web 2.0 conference, for example.
Discussion:
Traveling Geeks
Leon Erlanger / Computerworld:
The tech jobs that the cloud will eliminate — InfoWorld - As if outsourcing, virtualization, utility computing, automation, hosted applications, and a recession weren't enough to stress out the average IT professional, there's the emerging threat of cloud computing to take away even more IT jobs.
Discussion:
eWeek
Chinmei Sung / Bloomberg:
Hon Hai Suspends Security Official Following Suicide of IPhone Employee — Hon Hai Group, the world's largest contract-manufacturer of electronics, suspended a security official at one of its subsidiaries after the death of an employee who lost a prototype of an Apple Inc. iPhone.
Peter Cohen / Macworld:
Navigon launches MobileNavigator for iPhone, for North America — Navigon AG on Wednesday announced the launch of its MobileNavigator software for North America, for the iPhone. It costs $70 until August 15, when the price rises to $100. — MobileNavigator doesn't require …
Discussion:
9 to 5 Mac, Engadget, AppScout, MacRumors, iLounge, Technologizer, dailywireless.org, Mashable!, PE Hub News and Gizmodo
Ryan Tate / Gawker:
The Google-Cash-Swapping-Orgy Blimp — Google hasn't been shy about sharing its riches with select friends outside the company. And the number one rule of this tightly-knit group seems to be: spread the love. Which brings us to 23AndMe's new, very incestuous blimp.
